Turning over a new leaf to fight inner city air pollution

02 Aug, 2017

Turning over a new leaf to fight inner city air pollution

Bristol should follow China’s lead in fighting inner city pollution by greening its buildings.

That’s according to Dianne Francombe, Chief Executive of the Bristol and West of England China Bureau, who has been impressed by the latest architectural solutions being rolled out in a number of Chinese cities.

Dianne said: “China is pioneering a whole new approach to housing its enormous urban populations – by turning entire cities green. They are already looking at how buildings can be designed to support tons of carbon-absorbing plants from pavement to penthouse.”

The implications could be beneficial for businesses here as Bristol has established strong cultural and trade links with cities in southern China.Dianne Francombe said: “Chinese cities such as Liuzhou and Nanning were already pioneering forest city technologies. Taiwan is also building environmentally advanced and forested apartment blocks.

“Nanning is already building two forest towers, based on the revolutionary Vertical Forests in Milan.

“But the city of Liuzhou in Southern China is taking the concept one step further and creating an entire forest mini-city where every apartment block, school and public building is bedecked with trees and hanging plants.”

The designers claim by planting one million plants and 40,000 trees they can create a city for 30,000 people capable of absorbing 10,000 tonnes of CO2 while releasing 900 tonnes of oxygen into the atmosphere.”

Dianne Francombe said China was concerned to get pollution levels in its mega-cities under control.

“Likewise, Bristol is increasingly blighted by chronic traffic problems with consequent effects on air quality. It seems China is ahead of us in terms of solutions.”

She went on: “West companies involved in existing green-roofing technologies for instance could well benefit from a closer study of the technologies being rolled out in China and how they are scaling up these concepts.

“This is exactly the sort of initiative that the Bristol and West of England China Bureau exists for. Our role is to help businesses here identify opportunities with their counterparts in Southern China and Hong Kong where there are infinite opportunities for joint collaboration and development.”